Intracoronary delivery of autologous cardiac stem cells improves cardiac function in a porcine model of chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy

In this manuscript the authors investigate the effect of the intracoronary injection of autologus cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy in pigs.  CSCs were obtained from the pigs’ right atrium. Three groups were created. Groups II and III underwent a 90 minute occlusion of the left anterior descending artery in order to cause an anterior myocardial infarction (MI). Group I served as control. At 3 to 4 months after MI, pigs received intracoronary infusion of vehicle (group II), or autologous CSCs into the infarct-related artery by the use of a balloon catheter (group III). Echocardiographic and hemodynamic assessment of cardiac function was performed before treatment and at the time of euthanasia at 31 days after vehicle/CSC therapy. Morphometric and histological  studies were also carried out. CSC-treated pigs exhibited significantly greater LV ejection fraction, systolic thickening fraction in the infarcted left ventricular wall, and maximum LV dP/dt, as well as lower LV end-diastolic pressure. Microscopic  findings were consistent with cardiac regeneration. These findings were in keeping with those recently published on humans in the SCIPIO trial.